Brickmason & Blockmason Salary Guide for Employers (SOC 47-2021)

Why Mason Pay Is Harder to Price Than It Looks

You just found a journeyman brickmason who can run a crew, read a plan, and lay a tight course — and he wants to know your number before he drives across town for a second interview. You open your last hire's offer letter, glance at what a regional competitor posted on Indeed, and take a guess.

That guess is the problem. Masonry pay is genuinely regional, shifts with union penetration, and moves differently than the broader construction market. A number that wins the hire in a mid-size Southeastern market can be $8,000 to $12,000 low in a dense Northeastern metro — and the candidate sitting across from you already knows the difference.

This guide gives you the BLS-grounded framework to stop guessing. You'll get the national wage picture by percentile, a plain-English read of the occupation's O*NET profile, a worked salary-band example you can adapt to your market, and a clear path to the local figures your specific market requires. Let's build the offer.

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The National Wage Picture for Brickmasons & Blockmasons

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program surveys roughly 1.1 million establishments across the country and publishes annual wage estimates by occupation, geography, and percentile. The data is public and free at bls.gov/oes — but navigating the raw CSV files and matching the right SOC code takes time most hiring managers don't have.

Here is what the BLS data shows for the masonry trades at the national level.

Broad masonry workers (BLS, May 2024 — national):

Percentile	Annual Wage
10th	$38,520
Median (50th)	$56,600
90th	$90,120

Brickmasons & blockmasons specifically (BLS OEWS, May 2024 — national):

Percentile	Annual Wage
25th	$49,430
Median (50th)	~$60,800
75th	$77,290

A quick note on the data: BLS publishes wage figures for the broader masonry group (which includes related occupations) and for the brickmason/blockmason occupation more narrowly. The narrower figure — around $60,800 median — is the more precise benchmark when you're hiring specifically for brick or block work. Both series are sourced from the BLS OEWS program; confirm which applies to your specific hire at bls.gov/oes before building your band. See needs_verification for the operator note on reconciling these two series.

What the spread tells you: The gap between the 25th percentile ($49,430) and the 75th percentile ($77,290) is nearly $28,000 a year. That is not noise — it reflects genuine skill and experience differences, union vs. non-union rates, geography, and local demand pressure. If you are offering a flat number without knowing where your market sits in that range, you are essentially pricing blind.

The total masonry workforce (the broader group including related masonry occupations) was approximately 294,300 workers nationally as of 2024, with projected growth of about 2% through 2034. Growth is modest, but retirements are not: roughly 1 in 5 construction workers overall is over age 55 (ABC), and the skilled experienced journeymans in your market are exactly the workers most likely to be aging out. The supply pressure is real even when the headline growth rate looks flat.

For the broader construction and extraction occupational group, the BLS reports a median annual wage of $58,360 (May 2024) versus $49,500 for all occupations nationally — context that shows masonry sitting right at the skilled trades midpoint.

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Reading Percentiles Like a Hiring Manager

A percentile is a ranking number that tells you where a wage falls in the full distribution of what people in that role actually earn. The 50th percentile (the median) means half the brickmasons in the sample earn more, half earn less. The 75th percentile means 3 out of 4 brickmasons nationally earn less than that figure — it's where you go when you need to win a competitive hire or bring in an experienced lead.

For masonry, that framework plays out like this in the national data (BLS, May 2024):

• 25th percentile ($49,430): Entry or early-journey workers in lower-cost markets, or roles with limited scope. Opening here risks losing anyone with options.
• Median (~$60,800): The market midpoint — appropriate for solid journeymen in typical metro markets.
• 75th percentile ($77,290): Experienced journeymen, crew leaders, or workers in high-demand markets. This is the range where competitive offers live in 2025.

The BLS does publish 10th and 90th percentile estimates for the broader masonry group ($38,520 and $90,120, respectively, May 2024). The 90th percentile signals what top-performing foremen and specialty masons in high-cost metros can command — worth knowing when you're evaluating a candidate who comes with a long track record and expects to be priced accordingly.

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The O*NET Profile: What You're Actually Buying When You Hire a Mason

The O*NET (Occupational Information Network) system, developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, is a comprehensive library of what workers in every occupation actually do — the tasks, skills, knowledge domains, and physical context the job requires. Here is what the profile tells you about SOC 47-2021 and why it matters for your offer.

Job Zone: Brickmasons and blockmasons fall in Job Zone 3 — medium preparation. In ONET's framework, that means the role typically requires related work experience, specific vocational preparation, or an apprenticeship, but not a four-year degree. For most journeymen, that translates to a three-to-four-year apprenticeship program (similar to electricians, per ONET's own examples) or several years of on-the-job progression through the trades.

Core tasks (illustrative, from the O*NET profile for 47-2021):

• Laying and binding bricks, concrete blocks, and other masonry units using mortar
• Reading blueprints, specifications, and work orders to determine materials quantities and work procedures
• Measuring and marking reference points and layout lines
• Cutting and trimming masonry units to fit corners, openings, and other angles
• Inspecting and patching mortar joints

Key knowledge domains: Construction and building; engineering and technology; design; mathematics (for calculating materials and ensuring square, plumb, and level).

Physical demands context: Work is performed outdoors in variable weather; sustained kneeling, crouching, and overhead work are common. This is relevant to your offer because candidates evaluating two similar offers will weigh physical workload against compensation — and masonry is among the more physically demanding construction specialties.

This profile explains why the median wage sits above the all-occupations national median even with modest projected growth: the work requires a real skill credential and significant physical output. Your offer needs to price that honestly.

This article includes information from ONET OnLine, developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. ONET is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.

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Building a Salary Band for Your Mason Hire

A salary band is a structured wage range — minimum, midpoint, and maximum — that gives your recruiting team a consistent, defensible framework for every offer. Rather than starting from scratch each time, you anchor the band on a market percentile and apply a spread buffer (the percentage range above and below the midpoint) that reflects how much variation you want to allow for experience and negotiation.

Here is a worked example anchored on the national brickmason median from BLS OEWS, May 2024. This is a teaching example — you will need to adjust the midpoint anchor for your specific geography.

Example inputs:

• Midpoint anchor: $60,800 (national median, BLS May 2024, SOC 47-2021)
• Spread buffer: ±20% (a moderate range for a journeyman role)

Calculated band:

• Minimum: $60,800 × 0.80 = $48,640
• Midpoint: $60,800
• Maximum: $60,800 × 1.20 = $72,960

If your market is competitive — a dense metro, a union-dominated region, or a market where you're losing candidates to commercial GCs — consider anchoring the midpoint at the 75th percentile ($77,290) instead. That shifts the whole band upward and signals to experienced candidates that you're priced to compete.

For a deeper walkthrough of the band-building methodology for trade roles, including how to choose your spread buffer and when to use state vs. metro data as your anchor, see our salary band guide for trades employers.

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The Local Rate Question: Why You Must Check Your State and Metro

The national median is the floor of your analysis, not the answer. Masonry wages vary significantly by geography — driven by local cost of living, unionization rates, permit activity, and the concentration of commercial construction in your market.

The BLS OEWS program publishes state-level and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) wage estimates for brickmasons and blockmasons. An MSA is a Census-defined geographic cluster built around a core urban area — roughly what you'd call your metro market.

The library this article draws on carries only national figures for masonry. For your specific state or metro rate:

1. Go to bls.gov/oes
2. Select "May 2024 State Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics" (or the most recent release available)
3. Find your state, then look up SOC 47-2021

Note that in smaller markets or rural areas, the BLS may suppress the estimate if the sample is too small to publish reliably (fewer than 10 estimated workers in the cell). If you hit a suppressed cell, step up to the state total or national figure and say so in your comp documentation — that's the right method, not a workaround.

For employers in Florida, our Florida skilled trades wages guide walks through how to read the state OEWS data for construction trades specifically.

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What a Mis-Priced Offer Actually Costs

Losing a skilled mason to a competitor's better offer isn't just a bad day — it's a quantifiable setback. The SHRM benchmark puts replacing an employee at 50%–200% of annual salary (these are modeled industry ranges, not a measured SkilledMarkets figure). For a mason earning $60,000 a year, that's a modeled replacement cost of $30,000 to $120,000, factoring in recruiter time, lost productivity, onboarding, and the productivity ramp of the next hire.

And re-recruiting takes time. SHRM's median time-to-fill benchmark is approximately 44 days — and that's for general roles. Masonry is skilled and the labor pool is thinning: the industry needs an estimated 439,000 net new construction workers in 2025 alone (ABC), against a workforce where retirements are accelerating.

The question isn't whether you can afford to pay at the 75th percentile. It's whether you can afford to lose the candidate, re-recruit for six weeks, and then pay a staffing agency a fee commonly ranging from 15%–25% of first-year base salary to find someone comparable. Price the offer to close.

For a broader look at wage benchmarking strategy across the skilled trades, our skilled trades wage benchmarking guide covers how to build a repeatable process that doesn't start from zero every time you open a req.

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Your Next Step: Get the Local Number

The national percentile picture tells you the shape of the market. Your local number tells you where to anchor the offer. Here's a clean path forward:

1. Pull your state or metro OEWS figure at bls.gov/oes for SOC 47-2021. If you're in a suppressed metro, use the state figure.
2. Build your band using the midpoint anchor and a spread buffer that matches your competitiveness target. The salary band guide has the full methodology.
3. Cross-reference against our Skilled Trades Compensation Guide 2026 (PDF) — a formatted, ready-to-use reference that walks through wage benchmarks and band templates across the major trade occupations, so you're not rebuilding this from scratch for every hire.

If you want a tool that does the percentile lookup, the band math, and the O*NET profile pull in one place — and lets you run it for any trade, any metro — the SkilledMarkets platform starts at $199/mo. You can explore what it does with your market's masonry data on a 14-day free trial, no spreadsheet required.

For a broader look at what comparable trades are paying, the carpenter salary guide and the trade wage data hub are good starting points for context.

Masonry is a specialist hire in a tightening market. Price it like one.